Today is the 20th anniversary of the release of the original Xbox, which means it’s also the 20th birthday of a little video game series called Halo, which Microsoft chose to celebrate by releasing the free multiplayer component of December’s Halo Infinite a little bit early… but that’s not all. Paramount+ also briefly stopped by the party to show off the first teaser for its looong-in-the-works Halo TV show—which was originally announced for Showtime years ago.
The Halo TV show is going to star Pablo Schreiber as the mostly silent, helmet-wearing solder man at the center of most Halo stories, Master Chief, with Natascha McElhone playing the relatively mad scientist who invented super soldiers like Mr. Master Chief. Halo video game voice actor Jen Taylor will also be reprising her role as Chief’s AI buddy/girlfriend Cortana.
Taylor is the only one we actually hear in this trailer, giving Schreiber’s scarred and hairless Master Chief a friendly “hello” as he suits up in the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor that all the genetically enhanced soldiers (called “Spartans”) like him wear in their fight against the alien Covenant hordes.
That’s about all there is to Halo (man in suit, Cortana, aliens), at least in the first game, but a press release from Paramount+ promises that this show will “weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure, and a richly imagined vision of the future.” We imagine, since McElhone’s character will be showing up in the flesh and not exclusively in ancillary novels that your gamer friends insist are really good even though you’ve never seen them read any other book, that the show will expand on the very minimal plot that actually happens in the original Halo.
Halo will be available to stream on Paramount+ at some point in 2022.
